Margaret Gilbert
Margaret Gilbert is Elena Gilbert's little sister. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, much like her sister. Her parents were Elizabeth Gilbert and Thomas Gilbert. Early Life Margaret is still in her early life when the series opens. She does not remember her parents much, as they died when she was just a baby, but she is very close to Elena. The Awakening Margaret is introduced in this book, but does not have much action. She is 4 years old and dresses up as a white kitten for Halloween. The Struggle Margaret convinces Aunt Judith to let her adopt a white kitten with blue eyes, whom she names Snowball. When Damon Influences Robert to allow him over for dinner, Elena shoves Snowball in Damon's face to antagonize him, causing Margaret to cry. That night, Damon comes back into the house to feed on Elena, but can not get into her room since it qualifies as a different area to access. He finally gets her to come out and let him feed on her after he threatens to feed on Margaret instead. Other than that, Margaret again does not have much action in the book. The Fury When the town's animals are attacking their owners, Elena visits Margaret by going up to her bedroom window and telling her to let her in. Margaret, deeply saddened by Elena's death, asks her if she is an angel. Elena feels sad, thinking to herself that she had become the opposite of an angel. She then convinces Margaret to get rid of Snowball and let her go out the window so that she doesn't attack her, and then says goodbye as Margaret cries. During the final battle, Meredith helps protect Margaret, Judith and Robert as they hide in the Gilbert house while the town's pets go on a rampage. At the end of the book, Margaret is confused about having another funeral for Elena, this time with her body. She says that she's going to join her and her parents one day, but first has "things to do". Bonnie remarks that she's a very strong and smart girl. Dark Reunion Margaret appears at Bonnie and Meredith's graduation with Aunt Judith, who says that it would have been a very special day for Elena. The Return: Nightfall Margaret only appears in a brief scene for this book where, once again, she meets her supposedly dead sister as Elena comes into her room when Damon, possessed by the malach, is chasing her from place to place with the Master Keys. Elena had to go home to make sure everyone was all right during the madness. Margaret is using a coloring book and is delighted to see Elena again, but Elena simply tells her to quickly run to her friend Barbara's house as fast as she can. Margaret is disappointed that she can't catch up with Elena and finally agrees, running out of the house and having Elena once again leave her crying. The Hunters: Phantom The rest of Margaret's fate during The Return is unknown, but whatever happened, all is back to normal in this book as she finally has a presence similar to her role in the first three. She runs into Elena's room the first morning Elena is back and tells her that she had a bad dream where Elena went away. Elena wonders if somehow Margaret, who is now 5, retained her memories of the past year. In everyone's memories, Margaret had been learning how to dance, something she may have done had everything gone smoothly like everyone remembers. Later on in the book she has a dance recital, which she keeps pressuring Elena not to forget about, foreshadowing that, of course, Elena will miss it because of a conflict. When this does happen, Judith tells Margaret that Elena had to take Caleb to the hospital, and reports back to Elena that she understood and is okay with it. The Hunters: Moonsong Margaret once again complains that Elena is always leaving when she heads off to college, and Elena wonders just how much of the first 7 books Margaret remembers. Towards the end of the book, Elena learns that a male Guardian visited the Vitale Society, whom her parents belonged to, when they were in college. He told them that a new type of Guardian needed to be born, one that would watch over the Earth while actually living on it. He had selected Elena's parents, who had already loved each other by then, to create her under the condition that she would be given up to them when she was 12. However, they loved her too much for this and refused to hand her over when the Guardian contacted them again. So, they decided to take her forcefully, crashing her parents' car in an attempt to kill her so that they could bring her back to life in their own world. However, Elena's skills at being a Guardian were already so well-developed that she noticed them and pointed them out, asking what she was seeing. Her father's slight change in movement caused her parents to die instead of her. This would have been just before she turned 13, as Margaret was already born and in the car. What this means for Margaret has yet to be seen, but it could be an explanation as to why she remembers certain events, if she indeed does. It also begs the question of whether the Guardians will come after her when she is 12, as well. Trivia Elena is 17 in the original trilogy and Margaret is 4. Margaret is still 4 in The Return: Nightfall and Elena is "almost eightteen". However, a few days later in The Return: Shadow Souls, Elena states that she is eightteen. Margaret is 5 the next time Elena sees her in The Hunters: Phantom. In The Hunters: Moonsong, it is revealed that Elena's parents died when she was 12. However, given that Margaret was already born, this would have been right around the very end of her being 12, right before she turned 13, and Margaret's birthday would have come before hers. This would place both their birthdays in the few days between Nightfall and Shadow Souls, which also means that Margaret was literally just born a few days prior to her parents' deaths.